Jettison regional reservation for students' admission: CPI (M)

Puducherry: The CPI (M) on Tuesday demanded immediate scrapping of the regional reservation system adopted by the government for admitting students to professional colleges, saying it is 'constitutionally unjustified and academically unethical'.

Party's local unit secretary V Perumal told reporters here that admitting students selected through Centralised Admission committee by following reservation quota for Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam had been hitting students of Puducherry region.

Since all students perform well, there was no need to introduce this system, adopted since 2002, he said.

Under the system 18 percent of total seats in professional colleges are earmarked for students of Karaikal, four percent for Mahe and three for Yanam region. These students can simultaneously compete with their counterparts in Puducherry region in the remaining 75 percent of seats.

This reservation was introduced on the ground that the outlying regions were educationally backward and hence students from there should be shown special consideration to go in for professional courses.

Perumal also criticised the power tariff hike, saying the electricity department should concentrate on recovering Rs 100 crore arrears from various government departments and hefty dues outstanding from private industry and high tension power consumers. Transmission loss stood at nearly 30 percent.

He said the sale price of milk was also on the rise and milk producers had not stood to benefit.

The CPI (M) would launch a demonstration here on May 19 to urge the AINRC government to withdraw the power tariff hike, the price of milk and abolish the regional reservation system, he said.